National Express East Anglia (NXEA) is introducing a new timetable for its West Anglia network commencing on Sunday 11 December 2011, increasing seating capacity on the West Anglia route by almost 20% through the addition of 5,500 more seats at peak travel times.
The timetable is designed to deliver the maximum customer benefits of NXEA’s £155m investment in a fleet of 30 brand new Class 379 trains introduced this summer.
An additional £30m has been invested in lengthening platforms, increasing car parking capacity and in new carriage washers as part of the company’s Service Improvement Plan. The main timetable improvements include:
- 5,500 more seats increasing seating capacity across the West Anglia network by almost 20%
- All Stansted Express services to be operated by brand new Class 379 trains with all services formed of eight carriages and running every 15 minutes
- Three ‘peak’ services between Cambridge and Liverpool Street operated by new trains and formed of 12 carriages
- Faster journey times from Cambridge, Hertford East and Edmonton Green to London
- Half-hourly services between Bishops Stortford and Stratford
- New services starting from Broxbourne for London and serving intermediate stations
- Two morning ‘peak’ services from Hertford East to Stratford
- Some services on the Chingford, Enfield, Hertford East / Cheshunt routes will include extra seats with trains increased from 4-carriage to 8-carriage lengths.
NXEA has consulted fully with customers in the planning of the timetable improvements.
Draft timetables were published on the NXEA website earlier this year giving rail passengers and stakeholders the opportunity to comment and participate in the planning of the timetable.
‘Meet the manager’ sessions have taken place at stations to keep passengers informed and receive feedback.
Andrew Chivers, Managing Director, National Express East Anglia said:
“The timetable improvements for our West Anglia route customers completes the £185m investment through our Service Improvement Plan to increase seating capacity on our network in partnership with the Department for Transport, by providing 188 new and additional vehicles for East Anglia including 120 new carriages on our Stansted Express and West Anglia route.
“This means we will be providing around 11,000 more seats for our customers using services into London Liverpool Street on our West Anglia and Great Eastern mainline routes in the December 2011 timetable, an increase of almost 20% in the past year.”
Customers can obtain full details of the new West Anglia route timetable, including specific information on journey improvements from their local station or here.
